Bountiful baskets...

This evening, we enjoyed some of the produce that was from our first Bountiful Baskets "contribution".   Our neighbor, Kristi kindly picked up our order and delivered it to our door!  (Thanks again!)

Our day was otherwise pretty uneventful, outside of when one of Andrew's cows was out.  Oh, and when my cow (the one we're working with to get her to take her calf) figured out that if she stuck her head through the gate that was leaning against the wall, she could pull back and get the gate open far enough so she could escape!  The guys got her back in the barn after a while of chasing, then had to lock her in the pen, as she was already sticking her head through the gate to do her trick again.  I later went and wired a short cattle panel (the kind with small holes) onto the gate so she could not stick her head through it, then let her out of the little pen into the larger area.  Cows!

We had 4 new calves yesterday.  It must have been a low-pressure time or something, as we had none today.

Yesterday was such a busy day....   For me, it was one of those clutsy days where it seems everything you touch either breaks, drops, spills, gives you a sliver, or cuts you.   You know the kind....

But, anyway, amidst all of that, we did get much accomplished.  After I did the morning chores, my mom and I took my little calf out to the pasture to find its mother and to see if the cow still remembered her baby.  She did not.  At first, it seemed like she might accept it, but as soon as it headed back to the dinner pail, she promptly kicked the calf in the head and ran away.  We took the calf out by a group of other cows and calves, hoping she'd come find it.  Ha ha

Jacob and I spent about 3 hours pushing dirt around, each with a 9030 loader tractor....  My dad wanted the huge hole (that the railway men dug for us to put rocks in several years ago) covered this year so he could plant over it, so we pushed the dirt back in and then Jacob packed it down by driving over it and leveled a pile of dirt on top of it.  I hauled a bunch of loads of dirt back to the farmyard to fill in the holes in the driveway; build up an approach by the hay-yard; and to put by the milk-cow's water tank.

In the middle of our lunch, my dad called saying he needed more corn seed brought down where he was planting.  SO, Jacob and I left right away to load the corn bags on the pickup, then filled the drill while Dad finished putting the fertilizer in and then ate his lunch.  I had not planned to be out in the field, really, so was just wearing some slip on shoes and no socks....  Dad asked Jacob to go fill the fertilizer truck again in Kintyre, so he took off.  Dad asked me if I wanted to ride along 1 round to see how the auto-steer worked and everything, so I did.  That was probably the LONGEST round of the day.  We had to stop 4 or 5 different times because things kept going wrong (pins sheered off, a pulley broke; a chain came off)...   While we were fixing one of those problems, Jacob called and said he'd run out of gas in the truck (which really wasn't his fault, as the fuel gauge doesn't work with the tank that's on there).   Somewhere in there, I stepped into a weed/stalk and it scratched the top of my foot (bleeding wise).

SO, once we finally finished that round, and after Dad got some more pins/tools from the shop, I took some gas/funnels/jumper cables down to Kintyre.  He'd barely made it out on the paved road there by Kintyre, then ran out of gas.  The tank is in a very awkward place (it was homemade by the former owners and not of the best design I must say) and it would have been much easier to get at if we could have lifted the hoist, but the truck will not do that when it can't run, which it can't do when it's out of gas.  SO, we used the teeny tiny funnel that was connected to a small bendable hose which just barely reached from the side of the truck (where we had to have the gas can or we couldn't have the hose high enough to get the gas in the tank) and that took a long time---just to get 5 gallons in the truck.  Of course, we spilled some and it happened to splash on my foot, the one that had the scratch...   But, thankfully, the truck started after a little cranking and we were on our way again.

Once we got the truck delivered back to the field, we decided to check on my little calf again to see if there was any mother/baby bonding going on.  Nope. 

SO, we decided to attempt to get the cow in the calving pen where we could work with the pair.  I tried opening the back barn door, but it got about halfway open, then one of the rollers came off the track.  Jacob backed the pickup by the door and stood on it while I lifted the door and we managed to get it back on, after some time.

Next, we had a rodeo, running the cow around and finally getting her herded into the barn, Jacob on the 4-wheeler and me in the pickup.  Things could always have been worse, as we didn't run over any calves in the process or anything.  Once we got the cow in the smaller pen and then into the headgate, the calf would not suck on her.  SO, thankfully she is a mildly gentle heifer and I was able to milk her without getting kicked.  The calf still would not suck on the bottle, SO, I put the milk in the stomach-tube and fed her that way.

By that time, it was 3:30pm and we went in the house to finish our lunch (and I washed my feet), or to have our snack, whichever way you look at it.  My mom was just heading out the door to Wishek to get some parts for the tractor.  She'd been busy, but the house was still a mess and there was nothing prepared for our special Friday evening meal, so she said she'd stop at the Wishek grocery store to get something.

I went out to the garden then to finish planting all of the flower bulbs and cherry bushes that had come in the mail a few days back.  It was VERY windy by this time and made tilling a small patch kind of a yucky job.  And my feet got dirty again.  :)  I did get everything planted and watered by 6:30.  I'd changed my long, flowy skirt for a tighter, shorter skirt as a preventative to any other disasters (such as getting my skirt caught in the tiller and having my leg chopped off....).

OK, so this is getting very long and drawn out.  Let me just say that the good news is that, by the end of the day, my dad had all of the fields around the farm planted (and I have a greater appreciation for all that he goes through out there!); my mom had a good meal prepared for us and our house was moderately clean; Andrew came home around 9:00; Jacob helped with so many things and can do so much these days; the calf had a belly full of milk again (though tube-fed); and I nearly spilled half a gallon of milk while filling the chick's milk-feeder.  Arggg 

That's why we were all tired. 

Tonight I'm fighting a cold.  I wonder why? 

Please pray for all of the farmers and ranchers at this time of the year!  It's wild and can be dangerous....